Allgaier Back in Victory Lane

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Justin Allgaier ended an 80-race winless streak on Saturday, going to Victory Lane in the DC Solar 200 at Phoenix Raceway and winning the first leg of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash4Cash.

It’s the fourth win for Allgaier in 210 career XFINITY Series starts and first since moving back to the series full-time in 2016 after a two-year full-time stint in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Allgaier was able to hold off the field on multiple restarts over the final quarter of the 200-lap event after crew chief Jason Burdett used a four-tire pit strategy when other teams took two fresh tires after a caution flew with 43 laps to go.

“It’s been a couple years since I’ve been able to get to Victory Lane and it’s been challenging,” Allgaier said. “To come out this year, fourth race in, to get a victory, there are so many things that are cool about this moment. Erik and I had a great battle at the end of the race. It’s a fun place to race."

In addition to getting the race win, Allgaier took home the $100,000 NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash prize after being one of the top two running series regulars following the end of the second stage.

“What XFINITY does for our series is incredible. If you could pick four tracks for me to race for the Dash 4 Cash, I would pick the same four,” Allgaier said. "We’ve got the first one down and we’ve got three more to go. I’m very excited about getting to those different racetracks.”

Behind Allgaier was Ryan Blaney in second. Blaney started 33rd after not making a qualifying effort after being delayed in NASCAR Inspection. Blaney charged through the field and was leading by Lap 110, pacing the field for 15 laps.

“Our racecar was pretty good, especially on long runs I thought we really excelled,” Blaney said. “Short run speed we weren’t so great. The 7 car was spectacular for about 25 laps or so, then I thought our car really woke up and we were able to reel him in. Unfortunately we didn’t get that 25 or 30 laps at the end we needed to contend."

Erik Jones finished third with pole sitter William Byron in fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth.

Jones thought taking two tires was the right call despite not being able to get the victory.

“That was the only thing we really had to get some track position back and at least get up in the fight again,” Jones said. “We had kind of fallen back on the restart. We got run up the hill there a little bit but it got us back in the hunt.”

Sadler takes over atop the XFINITY Series standings after four races in 2017. He leads his JR Motorsports teammate Byron by 11 with Daytona winner Ryan Reed in third, 23 points behind the lead.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series wraps up their West Coast swing next Saturday at Auto Club Speedway.